FIRST BASE

Gene Sweeney Jr., Baltimore Sun

Making mole hills out of mountains: The Orioles keep running into speed bumps on their road to the promised land, but they obviously have a pretty good set of shock absorbers. The loss of Nick Markakis, pictured, was a major body blow over the weekend and to follow it up with another potentially season-ending injury to top-of-the-rotation starter Jason Hammel should have left them dazed and confused. Instead, they have won four of six games against the rival Yankees and Rays with one game left against Tampa Bay on this homestand. This is not the first time they've faced this kind of adversity or responded to it. They have almost worn out the word "resilience."

Making mole hills out of mountains: The Orioles keep running into speed bumps on their road to the promised land, but they obviously have a pretty good set of shock absorbers. The loss of Nick Markakis, pictured, was a major body blow over the weekend and to follow it up with another potentially season-ending injury to top-of-the-rotation starter Jason Hammel should have left them dazed and confused. Instead, they have won four of six games against the rival Yankees and Rays with one game left against Tampa Bay on this homestand. This is not the first time they've faced this kind of adversity or responded to it. They have almost worn out the word "resilience."